We've got a couple of good, spirited threads regarding various issues related to home ownership, so I figured I'd throw another log on the fire.

I bought my house in November, and as a first time buyer, decided to hire a buyer's agent. He recommended that I use a home inspector he worked with in the past, and I was pretty happy with the stuff the inspector found. I ended up getting a $1500 credit for various things that needed attention, and felt like I was buying a house in pretty good shape, all things considered.

A couple months ago, however, I started to see some water damage on the ceiling in my kitchen. Soon the water was coming down the wall in an adjoining room, and I had a contractor come in to look at it. He found several leaks in copper pipes behind the walls of my bathroom. The water kept coming after these leaks were fixed, so the contractor opened up my ceiling and found several more leaks, this time in the kitchen. Then, I see a couple more pinhole leaks down in the basement.

In other words, my copper tubing (about 45 years old) is completely shot, and I'm staring down the barrel of replacing my entire plumbing system. I've had a plumber come in, and though I haven't gotten the estimate yet, I know it's going to be a big number.

Now, I understand that shit happens as a homeowner, and that not all kinds of repairs can be anticipated by a home inspector. I couldn't have expected him to see leaks behind walls and above ceilings, and I didn't notice anything suspicious about the pipes in the basement myself, and couldn't tell you if there was any evidence of corrosion on them. Then again, home inspecting isn't my job, which is why I paid the guy to find stuff for me.

I also know that this type of thing doesn't happen overnight. My pipes were leaking in no fewer than seven places within six months of buying my home. Furthermore, in one case (in the kitchen) I found that the area of the ceiling where water damage was visible had been painted over. Clearly, they had tried to cover up water damage (and obviously succeeded in that regard.)

Basically, I'm feeling pretty bad about all of this. I'm not quite ready to say I feel like I got jobbed, but I do feel that I was deceived by the seller (painting over the prior water damage, not noting anything about leaks on the disclosure form) and that maybe the home inspector could have noticed the exposed pipes in the basement weren't in the best shape.

So, I guess I'm wondering if anyone's ever been through this kind of thing, and might have any advice on what to do. "Suck it up" is a valid response, and, if that's the case, consider this thread nothing more than a rant on my part.